In a time like this , we all might have to live to accept the uncertainty that comes along with the pandemic. We can't deny the reality we find ourselves now, many people become anxious because they don't have the idea of what will happen next. Recession is already looming in many countries and of course, this come with job loss because not all businesses that shut down during the lock down could reopened and do business as usual because of new way of doing things. Some businesses that managed to reopened after ease of lockdown do so with some staff be layed off, salary reduction while some permanent staff are turned to temporary staff.
It would be very unwise to deny and do as if all is well, those paying their mortgage and servicing other debts might not really find it funny. Emotional stress, anxiety and panic has become the order of the day in many homes. If your shock absorbing capacity is weak, several ailment might just be part of what to be managed. Psychologically, people might become unstable as they battle emotional strain as well as pressure mainly because of legitimate needs yet to be meet. Stress which is a form of psychological pain when it is in a small amount might be okay if well managed. In other words, it's beneficial, it can help to provide a way out in such a time like this. It is healthy, however when stress become excessive it can lead to harm such as mental illness, heart attacks,depression and can also shoot up or aggravate existing health conditions. Stress might even aggravate to become anxiety and furthermore lead to anxiety disorder. It will be helpful to differentiate between Stress and anxiety here for the sake of clarity because most times people can't pick the difference between the two as many people are already battling with stress, anxiety and anxiety disorder
Stress
Stress is human way of responding to emergency situation. It is expected to be for a short time and afterwards, all thing return to normalcy. Depending on how you manage stress, it can have a negative or positive impact on you. You can manage and hit a deadline or escape an impending danger when you manage stress but when poorly managed, it might leads to insomnia, loss of concentration, inability to do what you would normally do. One could say that its a way of responding and managing situation. Stress stem from external factors and that is one of the difference between it and anxiety.
Brain chemistry of dealing with stress
Brain has a way of managing stress, the part of the brain that initiate response to stress has a funny sound and its the Amygdala. It is small in size with blue colour in the image below but not small in action, the size is just like a small kidney bean found in the middle of the brain. For instance when you are emotionally stressed and you are scared or frustrated, the amygdala tells a group of other glands called HPA axis to respond to the situation .
Some brain areas CC BY-SA 3.0,
The HPA axis is an acronym for hypothalamus–pituitary–adrenal axis. When you are stressed, the amygdala send information to the hypothalamus, which in turn send signal to the pituitary gland which is just below the hypothalamus connected together by blood vessels and nerve fibers. From the pituitary gland, hormones that we can called messenger hormones leaves the brain and migrate to the Adrenal gland which is triangular in shape sitting on the kidney . The pituitary gland is not only important in triggering response to stress but also responsible for directing secretion of other hormones in other endocrine glands in the body.
The Adrenal gland secrets Cortisol well known as stress hormone as well as adrenaline. These hormones in your body set all other body organs on alert and helps you to respond adequately to issue or threat on ground. You begin to think of the next line of action, your muscles become energetic with increase breathing rate and heart rate as well as increase in glucose level in the blood and brain to provide energy to combat the situation . Can you just imagine how you respond when you suddenly see a big snake or a jackal racing towards you, you know how all part of your body swings into action!!!. You breathe heavily, take in more oxygen and run as fast as your legs could carry you.
Not all dangerous encounter or highly demanding situation which lead to stress actually last long. Most task that stress us are just short- term stress because soon enough we will get out of it. For instance seeing a snake , paying bills withing stipulated time or solving a difficult task which should be submitted withing a limited time frame are examples of short- term stress. However, the case is not same with some people. They're constantly living in stress, for example someone who just got a job and first day at work, he was shouted upon by his direct boss, or he failed to submit an assignment given to him and the first day was scary. Going to work daily might be something he would be scared of, or seeing the boss might be scary. The situation in his office might lead to a long-term stress whereby the HPA axis is continously triggered. The ideal thing is that after the pressure has subsided, the cortisol level and the adrenaline should go down, the heart rate and blood pressure return to normalcy. However, the long-term stress which continues to trigger the stress response system can put such an indivual in more risky health conditions such as Anxiety. Other health conditions include depression, Heart diseases, Insomnia, gaining weight, Lack of memory concentration, poor sex drive.
Anxiety
Anxiety might have a thin line of difference with Stress. It is a response to real or perceived problem. For instance, the impact of covid-19 on economy is enough to make many people to live in anxiety as many people don't know what will befall them. Anxiety is characterized with persistent tension, worry,expression of fear, increased blood pressure, lose of concentration. For Instance lossing a job or receiving pay cut, moving to new apartment or securing a new job might makes someone to be a bit anxious, you might begin to worry about how to meet the needs at home, paying mortgage, how to live in the new location, how to relate with people you will have to meet and how to handle the new relationships. On the other hand, a lot of things can make someone to experience anxiety, for instance anniversary date of a particular traumatic occurence, possibly a lady that was raped by gangster, or date to pay an annual rent is close by and the money is not there.
pixabay.com Anxiety
You can easily know if a person has been traumatized earlier. You mentioned a date and the expression on the face of the fellow just tell it all. You mentioned the name of a person or a city, an aggressive look might indicate that the person has been there earlier and such an individual experience in that place was nothing to write home about. All of these past experiences might stir up anxiety. If someone just received a stay away from office letter, million of thoughts would have run through his mind, and if there was an earlier experience, you know for sure that anxiety will build up unless if he just want to bottled it up.
Just as stress, anxiety might be for a short time. Anxiety can make someone to end up having mental health challenges. If care is not taken, depression might be the outcome of anxiety. An indivual might think the best way to handle anxiety is to withdraw from society perceived to have cause him/her harm or even committing suicide.
There are three effects of Anxiety i will talk about.
The Behavioral effects : This involve avoiding from situations which leads to anxiety, change in sleeping pattern, motor tension increase, inconsistent food intake.
The emotional effects: Feeling that your mind has completely gone blank, expecting danger at any time, maybe repeat of what happened earlier, for instance in the case of lady raped while at home alone by some group of boys, that thought might just flooded her mind, nightmares, déjà vu.
The cognitive effects: Fear of dying from current illness, maybe chest pain and you began to think that you will die of heart attack, you're overwhelmed with fear of dying to the extent that you can't get rid of it from your mind.
For instance, any appearance of symptoms related to covid-19 might trigger anxiety in you. It might not even be the virus but just because it is much talked about, you just begin to think that you are carrying the virus. This feeling might persist until you go for a test and you are told that it's not covid -19.
Anxiety Disorder may set in or be diagnosed when you discovered that you are consistently feeling anxious all the time for months. The body can manage stress or anxiety for sometimes, but concern are raised or should be raised when you discovered that you're becoming restless for a long period of time. Like i earlier put, the effect of pandemic on global economy as a whole will put many on hospital bed. Uncertainty will set in and many might end up living with constant fear of lossing their job.
I will continue from here in the part 2 of this article. Thanks for coming around.
References
https://www.health.harvard.edu/mind-and-mood/protect-your-brain-from-stress
https://www.britannica.com/science/pituitary-gland
https://www.webmd.com/a-to-z-guides/what-is-cortisol
https://www.psycom.net/stress-vs-anxiety-difference